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Eureka! A world-leading researcher in photonics, a globetrotting plant biologist and the creator of a popular climate change website are some of the winners announced at tonight's Eureka Prizes held in Sydney.

The prizes, awarded by the Australian Museum, recognise the work of Australian scientists, engineers and science journalists.

At age 40, Eggleton leads a team of more than 130 scientists at the University of Sydney, and is the founding director of CUDOS - the Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems.

One of the technologies the group is developing is a photonic chip for use in computing and telecommunications that is faster, smaller and more energy efficient than electronic chips.

In a recent interview, Eggleton told ABC Science that photonics is transforming many areas of society.

"The backbone of the internet is based on photonics: laser technology and optical fibres," he said. "Photonics technology is also used in defence technology, medicine, environmental monitoring."

Eggleton believes the roll out of National Broadband Network (NBN), which relies on photonics, will be of national benefit.

"Do I agree with the government's investment in the National Broadband Network? The answer is certainly yes," he said. "The NBN will pay for itself by increasing productivity, and will grow our innovation economy. It will also have a positive impact on the health and education sector."

All plants great and small

From rainforests in Africa to tundra in the Arctic, Moles has devoted her career to collecting and studying the variations in plant life across the globe.

In 2005, she published a paper that demonstrated for the first time that large plants have large seeds and small plants have smaller seeds. While that may seem self-evident the study, which included 13,000 plant sample, was the first of its kind to prove it.

Since then, Moles' research has led to a better understanding of plant distribution and height, and has inspired other large-scale ecological surveys.

Communicating climate change

Cook launched the Skeptical Science website in 2007 after becoming frustrated by misinformation surrounding global warming. Today, the website receives more than 500,000 visits per month, and an associated mobile phone app has been downloaded more than 72,000 times.

"His unique efforts using web and social media tools come at a time when accurate information is essential in terms of understating and responding to climate change," said Frank Howarth, director of the Australian Museum.